Month: February 2016

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that I am doing a lot of crocheting lately. I am always talking about building up a good stash of crocheted goods so that I will be ready when the next craft fair comes along. But then I never do it and craft sales come and go and I never sell anything. But next craft fair I am determined to be ready! In the past week I have crocheted 5 infant hats and one toddler hat. I am half way through the second toddler hat now.

With a week’s worth of non-stop crocheting I have developed a couple of my own patterns which I am excited to share with you in the future. But for today I want to share just the basic crochet hat. The foundation to whatever your mind can imagine. It is simple and can be adapted to whatever type of hat you want.
Now, I have shared a pattern here before. I under

stand that I am horrible with wording my patterns. So, at the bottom of this post there will be a short video for those of you who can’t make sense of my pattern…which might be all of you. I promise, I will practice until I am better at wording patterns!
Basic Crochet Infant Hat

Round 1: Chain 3. 11 dc in the ring. Slst in the top stitch of the chain three to join.Round 2: Chain 3. Dc in the same stitch as chain 3. 2 dc in each dc around. Slst in the top of the chain three to join.Round 3: Chain 3. Dc in the same stitch as chain 3. *1 dc in the next two stitches, 2 dc in the next stitch* around. Slst in the top stitch of the chain three to join.Round 4: Chain 3. Dc in the same stitch as chain 3. *1 dc in the next three stitches, 2 dc in the next stitch* around. Slst in the top stitch of the chain three to join.Round 5: Chain 3. 1 dc in each stitch around. Slst in the top stitch of the chain three to join.Round 6-10: repeat round 5.
*You can do fewer or more rounds depending on how long you want the hat to go.
*To make this a toddler hat, do another round of increasing. Round 5 would be Chain 3. Dc in the same same stich as chain 3. *1 dc in the next 4 stitches, 2 dc in the next stitch* around. Then proceed to the next round which would be 1 dc in each stitch.
*To make the hat bigger just do another round of increasing until it is the size you want.

Here is part 1 of 4 for basic instructions on how to make this hat. If you click this video it should direct you to my channel where you will find the rest of the videos. Sorry for poor sound quality…I am learning.

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Forgiveness is essential in any relationship. God commands it. And not only does he command it, He commands that we do it over and over again. I find little trouble in forgiving someone, especially someone I love. If someone asks me to forgive them I will say, “I forgive you.” Just knowing it is God’s command is enough for me.

What I do struggle with is what comes after forgiveness. After the offender is set free with forgiveness I am left with this hurt that I find difficult to stop thinking about. And you can say “forgive and forget” but it is just impossible. Just because I forgave someone does not mean that all is erased and everything is as if nothing happened in the first place. I struggle with that. I wonder if anyone else does, too.
What happens when I struggle with forgetting the past? I think about it. I wake up thinking about it. I go to sleep thinking about it. When I see the person who hurt me in the first place those original feelings of anger and hurt bubble up again even though all has been forgiven. Any of this starting to sound familiar?
Now those feelings are back and I begin to think about what my flesh would have liked to say instead of “I forgive you.” I start to think of what I should have done to make myself feel better instead of saying “I forgive you.” I begin to resent that person for ever asking me to forgive them. I feel angry that they no longer have to deal with this but I am still struggling with the effects of it. I feel angry that this doesn’t continue to cause them pain, too. Am I beginning to get close?
The truth is, whether we want to admit it or not, we have probably all struggled with these feelings at one point or another. But it is not spiritual to talk about how we feel after forgiveness. After all, we are to forgive and forget, right? Well, let me talk to you about what happened to me after forgiveness. Well, I guess I already have. Everything I described above I have felt personally. And it hurts. It is heavy. It is sadness. And it brings me down. I bring myself down when I allow those feelings to rule.I had to come to a point where I chose not to think about it. I didn’t allow myself. This took practice. I would put on the tv or music. I would start a conversation with someone. I would not allow my mind to reenact the whole situation over again. Make no room for the devil.I would purposely show acts of love to the individual that hurt me. This helped the most. I found ways to show them that I still loved them and that I wasn’t going to let what happened stand between our friendship. Because, let’s be honest, every moment that I am harboring that anger I am putting more distance between myself and the “offender.”I waited. You can’t instantly get rid of these feelings. And if you are on the offending side you shouldn’t expect your friend or spouse or whoever it is to instantly feel fine about what happened. Give it time. And time does heal if you are taking the above steps to help the healing. Time, in itself, won’t do it.I prayed. You can’t expect to fight feelings like anger, hurt, jealousy, etc on your own. You simply need the Lord’s help. And praise the Lord He is ready, willing, and fully capable to help us out of the miry clay and set our feet on a rock.
I am so thankful to say that I am in the “waiting” stage. I used to be praising the Lord hour by hour that I didn’t think about it. Now, by His grace, I am praising the Lord as month to month I can go without ever thinking about what happened to me.

Let’s be honest now. Where are you at?

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Meet Chewy. He’s a super cute cockapoo. He’s been unofficially mine since he was a little pup but officially mine for a little over 5 years now. Before I had any kids he was my baby. He napped on my back when I napped. We went for walks together all the time. Then William came. Then Jenna came. Then Pepper came. And now Chewy is no longer my baby. We still enjoy going for walks and the occasional nap on the couch but let’s face it, I don’t have time for him like I used to. One thing I am happy I can do for him, though, is make him some treats.

And what’s fun about making the pup treats is that the kids can help. They are so basic and easy to do that they are just about impossible to mess up. And with only two ingredients they don’t take long to make.

Just blend up one can kidney beans until they are pureed. Then add in 2 cups of flour.

Now, I will be honest. I would not ordinarily spend the half hour that it took to roll the dough and cut it into special shapes. BUT when you are baking with kids, it’s good to take each opportunity to work on any skill with them. And rolling and cutting is not only fun for a toddler, it is very good for their development. Hand-eye coordination, following instructions, identifying shapes, determining how much space is left on the dough, etc…It is great for the kids.

I lined a pan with parchment paper and let Jenna put out little treats on the pan while I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. We put them in for just 30 minutes then let them sit on the pan for another 5 minutes before setting them on the counter to cool.

Of course, Chewy loves them. And they are so much cheaper than buying a bag of treats. You can substitute the kidney beans for just about any pureed fruit or veggies. Look into it before doing it if you are unsure if that particular fruit or veggie is safe for a pooch.

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Earlier this week I sent my friend, Emily, a snapchat of my daughter. It was a short video of Pepper (16 months old) attempting to get her babies in the toy stroller. After a big struggle she got them in but then as soon as she took a step to push the stroller she fell over pulling the stroller over with her. Of course, all the babies fell out. All that work and in a second it’s a mess again.

Anyway, I sent that video to Emily just because it was cute but Emily’s response so encouraged me. She said something to the effect of how that’s a true mom moment. And you know what? That was really the kind of day I was having. Just when one thing got picked up something else was falling apart. When Emily said that to me it made me realize that I am not alone in my bad days! Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t delight in the knowledge that Emily has a bad day. But it does make me feel a little better to hear it from her that I am not alone in these day to day struggles.

Since then (seriously, all this week) a handful of friends have said something to me or mentioned something about themselves and I literally said, “That happens to you, too?” I think we get so caught up in the social media world that we really can believe that every other woman’s life is as put together as they let us believe. We begin to feel like there’s something wrong with us because we can’t have that perfectly put together living room or we don’t bake these incredible looking dishes that are less than 100 calories!

What if instead of promoting all these things we begin talking about the truth? How we struggle with submitting to our husbands, how we have to force ourselves to fold the laundry, how we don’t get dressed into real clothes until after lunch, how we sometimes will watch netflix all day, how we ate that chocolate bar but it was so good!

I am not saying to glorify our weaknesses but why not reveal them? When we see that we are not alone in our struggles as women we can better encourage each other. Maybe a sister in Christ is struggling with something that I have been through and got victory over. I could hide my imperfections and never offer her what I have learned or I could say, “Yeah, I struggle with that, too.” Which would further the cause of Christ?

So, I encourage all you ladies out there to reach out to those around you.Maybe as you were reading this someone popped into your mind. Who is that person that you can be a blessing to? Write her a note, let her know she is not alone in those day to day struggles. Maybe you can be a blessing to us here. Comment below what the Lord has taught you this week. By sharing our struggles and what the Lord teaches us from them we lift each other up.

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Only 364 days to Valentine’s Day! Yesterday I saw so many posts about not celebrating Valentine’s based on the idea that we shouldn’t reserve one day to show our spouse we care, but rather show them love the whole year long. That’s fine. It doesn’t bother me one bit if people choose to not celebrate Valentine’s Day. But I did wonder what those couples did all year long to celebrate their love for each other. Do they truly make an effort to show each other they care all year long? With most the couples, I don’t doubt at all that they make that effort. But what can I do? Continue reading →